New Delhi: Veteran character actor Himani Shivpuri, who has worked with actor Alok Nath on several films, has also come forward with her #MeToo story. Shivpuri shared that the incident took place when she was a first-year student in the National School of Drama (NSD) while Nath was in the third year batch, the same as Neena Gupta. 

She told MyNation, "This happened when I had just come from Dehradun to NSD, I was this naive girl. Alok Nath entered my room and he was totally under the influence of alcohol. In his alcoholic stupor, he was totally trying to force himself on me...and I was this small-town girl, who was trying to be polite because I had just joined the college and he was my senior. I kept telling him 'Sir if you could please leave my room' but he just refused. Fortunately, this happened in my hostel so I must have made a hue and cry, so people came inside and I managed to take myself out from that situation."   

The actor has also been accused of sexual harassment by actor Sandhya Mridul and television writer-director Vinta Nanda. 

Shivpuri added, "I went through hell for a couple of days and I was really scared. I must have buried it deep in my mind that this had almost happened to me too." She also said that there were many such incidents, later on, some even before she joined the industry. 

"It was awful, I have done so many films and television shows with him. We, women, are conditioned to accept it. The other day I was watching this minister say on television that the women are 'honeytraps' and then when the Nirbhaya rape happened then Asaram Bapu had said that she should have just called him Bhaiya and they would have left her. This is how they condition and talk about women, which is why we are scared to come out. It takes courage, so when Sandhya Mridul and Vinta came forward, I felt like I should show my solidarity as a woman."

The actor said that she was shocked to read Vinta Nanda’s Facebook post accusing the Hum Aapke Hai Kaun actor of rape and that she had to just 'sweep it under the rug.' She also termed Alok Nath's alcohol abuse as a “Jekyll and Hyde” behaviour which was an “open secret” in the industry.

She credited her moral values for keeping her strong. "I didn't take it because I had the morality of a small town girl. I did manage to survive because I am still working. Such people do not do it just once, they do it with so many."